Samet Nangshe Viewpoint

Samet Nangshe is a hill on the mainland shore of Phang Nga Bay, and from the top the whole bay lies below you: dozens of limestone islands standing in shallow water, mangrove channels winding between them, and on many mornings a layer of mist in the gaps. It is the view in the photographs of this coast taken from above, and it is a sunrise place: the light comes up behind the karsts, and by mid-morning the colour has gone and the haze has come in.

It is not on Phuket. It is in Phang Nga province, about 80 km by road from Patong, so a sunrise there is a drive in the dark. The question is when to leave, and that depends on the month.

Plan the sunrise

Sunrise here moves between 06:08 and 06:45 over the year, and first light comes 20 to 25 minutes before it, which is when the karsts start to show. The dry months are short: 75% of February days are dry at the viewpoint, and no month from May to October manages more than 20%. In the wet half of the year the sunrise is more often a grey dawn than a golden one, and the drive is the same either way.

The view

The main karst of the view in golden early light A visitor watching the sun come up over the bay Mangrove channels and karst islands below the hill in the afternoon The bay under a clear afternoon sky The path and the view at the top of the hill Limestone islands at dawn from the viewpoint

Photographs from Wikimedia Commons, by Yakuzakorat (2018), Pakawut kenta (2025) and Kamol2523 (2026); credited in full at the foot of the page.

Getting up the hill

The road ends at the foot of the hill, and the last stretch is steep. According to Phuket 101, updated in March 2026, a pickup truck runs up and back for 90 baht, or you can walk for an entry of 30 baht; the walk is a steep, exposed twenty minutes. The viewpoint is open from 5am to 10pm, there is a small restaurant at the top, and on the way up there is a first, lower viewpoint. Several other viewpoints sit along the same ridge, mapped on OpenStreetMap as Toh Li and Kuan Ta Iam.

It is busy at sunrise, most of all at weekends, with photographers who come for the Milky Way and stay for the dawn. It is colder at the top than you expect at that hour, and the mosquitoes are awake.

The skywalk

The Beyond Skywalk Nangshi resort, about 600 m from the viewpoint, opened in 2023 with a glass-floored skywalk that Phuket 101 gives as 180 m long and 80 m above sea level. Non-guests can go on it for 500 baht, which includes food and drink credit. It is the same view from a different angle, and a paid platform rather than a hill.

Staying on the hill

The surest sunrise is to be there already. Phuket 101 lists tents at the top from 130 baht a night and simple bungalows from 500 to 700, with shared bathrooms, and two hotels close by, the Sametnangshe Boutique and Beyond Skywalk Nangshi, from about 8,000 baht. From Khao Lak, which is 72 minutes away, or Phang Nga Town at 54, the drive is short enough not to need it.

Tours

Few tours go, and most of those that do pair it with something further away, such as Cheow Lan Lake. A car or a taxi booked the evening before is simpler for a sunrise.

Where it is

Samet Nangshe looks across the bay towards the islands the boat tours visit: James Bond Island and Koh Panyi are out in the water to the east. The two make a good pair of days, one from above and one from the water; see our guide to Phang Nga Bay and James Bond Island.